Tobie Stanger

You work all your life and dream of the day when you can ease back a bit and enjoy the fruits of your hard labor. But unless you plan for your retirement, that dream could turn into a financial nightmare.

During a TODAY Money web chat on Wednesday, Tobie Stanger, a senior editor at Consumer Reports Money Adviser answered a variety of questions about retirement. She said it’s never too early to start planning your retirement.

Tobie Stanger: Understanding what you spend now in your working life can help you determine what you'll need once you hit retirement.

Of course, things will change, but this is an important first step. And every financial planner worth his or her salt will ask you for this information. It also gives you a chance to look at what you're spending now. From there, you can plan changes so you'll be able to save more toward retirement.

Jon: How do I know how risky I should be on my 401k investments?

Tobie Stanger: It depends a lot on how old you are, and how long you expect to be retired. The rule of thumb is that the percentage of bonds you own should be about equal to your age.

Alice: Are annuities a good way to invest?

We're not crazy about variable annuities, which often come with steep fees and are very difficult to compare for shopping purposes. But a fixed immediate annuity may be a reasonable purchase.

There's a web site called immediateannuities.com that provides comparisons. Consumer Reports Money Adviser has an upcoming article in June on this very subject.

Omar: What are your thoughts on investing solely in index funds (S&P 500, small cap and foreign index) for an aggressive portfolio?

Tobie Stanger: Consumer Reports is very bullish on index funds. They are low-cost ways to track the market. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are somewhat like index funds, but can be even more low-cost. Check out Schwab and Fidelity for some good ETF choices and Vanguard for index mutual funds.

Stanger suggested using the retirement calculator on the T. Rowe Price website to help figure out how much you need to save to reach your goal. She said it's the most complete one Consumer Reports has judged.

Read the rest of the Q & A below:

To most thirtysomethings, retirement is a distant dream. But Jason Fieber, 30, of Sarasota, Florida, believes the dream of quitting work for good, traveling the world and playing golf is just 10 years away.

A car dealership service department clerk, Fieber, who lives in a city that's home to many retirees, told TODAY.com he'll be ready to join their ranks at age 40.

Fieber has been working towards retirement since he had "an epiphany" while balancing his checkbook online. After adding up his savings and subtracting his student loan debt, he was broke. "I was working and working and working and just digging myself a bigger hole," he said. "I felt like I was going nowhere."

He decided to start by paying fewer taxes. He found a job in Sarasota and moved from Michigan to state-tax-free Florida. The weather made waiting for public transportation bearable, so he sold his car and started taking the bus to work, saving on insurance and maintenance. That first year, Fieber halved his grocery bill, to $120 dollars a month, by replacing steak and potatoes with noodles and sandwiches.

"For dinner it was peanut butter and jelly a lot,” he said. “Occasionally I would mix in some deli meat, when I felt like splurging," he said. He has since added rice and beans, and today spends between $200 and $250 monthly. 

"I try to save 60 to 70 percent of my net income every month," said Fieber, who earns about $50,000 a year. He spends $900 on rent, $200 on student loans, and $50 on transportation. 

Fieber shares learnings on his blog, where his bio reads: "Trying to retire by 40 by investing in dividend growth stocks and living frugally, valuing time over money."

"Time is to me the most precious commodity we all have," he said. "We are given a very limited amount of it and people tend to trade it away so easily for stuff. And I value my time more than stuff, typically."  

He has a girlfriend who shares his frugal sensibilities, and hopes his retirement will coincide with his parents', so they can take long trips together and play golf. 

Fieber plans to live off the dividends he expects his stocks will pay. "Money works 24/7," joked Fieber. "Money works weekends and one day will be working when I'm not working."

Some financial analysts say living off dividends at age 40 is unrealistic for most.

"Industry experts generally agree that a 4 percent withdrawal rate from retirement income sources is sustainable, however this typically assumes a 30-year timeframe," says Derek G. Hassenpflug of Ameriprise Financial Services. "Potentially doubling this to 60 years in retirement takes this investor into uncharted and potentially disappointing territory." 

The average retirement age is 59.7 for men and 57.2 for women, according to a 2012 MetLife survey of baby boomers. And a Boston College study found that most 30 year olds' savings won't be enough to retire even by age 62. Only 20 percent of households led by 30-39 year olds would be prepared to retire by 62, according to the study.

Younger people tend to be less prepared to retire because they are expected to live longer, which means they will need additional assets to cover a longer retirement period, according to the study. 

Fieber's efforts are to be commended,said Andrew Kowalczyk, president and CEO of A.K. Capital, but his model is a tough one to follow. "There is the mathematics of living super modestly, but then there is the mathematics of real life."

There could be unexpected expenses, such as bills from a parent's sudden health problem, he said. The financial analyst describes the early retirement formula as “make a lot of money, invest it wisely and hope for a great return,” but that doesn't always work. "You have to be prepared for the curve balls that life throws at you."

For his part, Fieber doesn't plan on having children, and is optimistic he'll stay healthy. 

And he'll keep saving. "I'm going to have peanut butter and jelly tonight again," he said. "If you really kind of respect what you want out of life and you really want it then that's what you're going to have to do."

TODAY's Marcie Rickun contributed to this report.

As tax day draws near, some people may be surprised to discover they owe money — or owe more money than they expected.

What should you do if you can't pay taxes?

If you think you may have trouble paying your full tax bill, don't panic. There are ways to ease the burden. First and foremost, file a tax return or file for an extension by the April deadline.

File a tax return 
Whatever you do, don't ignore Uncle Sam. You must file a tax return. The penalty for not filing is 10 times more than the penalty for not paying.

If you fail to file by the April 15th deadline, you could face a penalty of 5 percent of your unpaid tax bill, plus interest, for each month the return is late - until the penalty hits 25 percent of what you owe.

If you file, but fail to pay your taxes, the penalty is only half a percent of your unpaid tax bill, plus interest, each month.

File for an extension 
If you need more time to gather paperwork, file for an extension. Last year, more than 11 million taxpayers requested an extension.

File for an extension by April 15th and you'll have until Oct. 15 to submit your tax return. By filing an extension, you've cut down on the penalties you'd pay by not filing at all, plus you'll get an automatic extension for six months to get your tax return in. Just remember, it's an extension to file — not an extension to pay. Starting April 16, if you have a tax liability and owe money to the IRS, interest and penalty begin to accrue on your tax bill.

Contact IRS to find out about payment options 
To minimize the effects of interest and penalties on unpaid balances on your taxes, begin by exploring your options with the IRS.

About one in six taxpayers who file their returns has a balance due on their return, according to the IRS. For many people, their tax bill is a big burden. But if you can't pay what you owe, or you can't pay all of what they owe, the IRS will work with you to get the money. Taxpayers can call the IRS at 1800 829 1040 — or go to the IRS website at www.IRS.gov.

Set up payment agreement online 
Setting up a payment agreement with the IRS is often the answer. As long as you owe $50,000 or less and have already filed your return, the easiest and fastest way to apply for an installment plan is to do so directly on the IRS website at www.irs.gov. You can also use Form 9465 to request an installment plan. In the payment agreement, you set the terms and figure out the largest monthly payment you can make. Once approved, you'll be charged a $105 fee — or $52 if you make direct debit payments from your bank account.

Be careful paying tax bill with credit card 
You may find it easiest to just pay your taxes with plastic. But it'll cost you in other ways. The IRS will let you pay by debit or credit card through one of five online payment processors — OfficialPayments.com, ChoicePay.com, Pay1040.com, Businesstaxpayment.com, and PayUSAtax.com. There's usually a flat fee for using a debit card, ranging from $2.99 to $3.49 per transaction. But online payment processers charge a fee of 1.88 percent to 2.35 percent of your tax bill for using a credit card — and some tack that fee on to debit card transactions as well. If you don't pay your credit card balance in full in the next billing cycle, you'll pay interest each month until you do. That's another 15 percent interest on the average variable rate, according to Bankrate.com.

If you don't like paying fees, there are free e-pay options available, such as electronic funds withdrawal and the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System, which allows you to pay via the Internet or by phone.

In the end, if you can't pay your full tax bill, setting up a payment plan with the IRS is probably the best way to go. Just remember, don't take too long to pay. Penalties and interest will continue to accrue until the full tax bill is paid. However, the late-payment penalty is cut in half for any month an installment agreement is in effect.

Taking away the car keys from an elderly parent may be easy in comparison to taking over their checkbook. Knowing when and how requires some skill, according to Jean Chatzky, TODAY’s financial editor.

“As we get older we lose our ability to make good financial decisions, but we get more confident in our ability to make financial decisions,” Chatzky said.

A recent report in Wall Street Journal Marketwatch noted that about a quarter of the people 65 and over have at least a slight cognitive impairment, according to research by Dr. Malaz Boustani, associate professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine and the director of the Wishard Healthy Aging Brain Center. But for the population 85 and older, about half have some sort of impairment.

“This is one of the things we know goes first,” Chatzky said.

There are tell-tale signs that something may be amiss, but you need to look for them, Chatzky advises.

“You want to look at how bill payment is being handled. So if you go into the house, or a neighbor goes into the house and sees piles of unopened bills or unopened mail, that’s a trouble sign,” she said. “Also if you’re with them in a restaurant and they seem to think they have more cash than they actually do, or they’re getting forgetful about that, that’s a sign again that they’re not paying attention but also that they may not be able to get to the bank or get to the ATM.”

Other signs include calls from creditors or a lot of expensive items showing up in the home.

It’s best to talk about these issues well before the need arises, Chatzky said. Also, both parents and adult children think it’s easier to discuss the topic when a financial adviser is present, according to the Intra-Family Generational Finance Study by Fidelity Investments.

And lastly, if you have siblings, make sure to keep them in the loop when it comes to your parents’ money, Chatzky said.

If you spend time worrying that you'll end up on the street in your old age with your belongings stuffed into plastic bags in a shopping cart, you have good company.

A new survey shows that almost half of American women fear they will become "bag ladies" some day, and the anxiety ripples across all income groups.

Even among women with household earnings above $200,000, 27 percent harbor the bag-lady fear, according to a new online survey issued by Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America.

While Allianz is promoting the survey to encourage women to seek more financial-planning advice, the underlying concern is valid, according to a labor economist who studies aging and income issues.

Because women typically earn less and have more sporadic work histories, their pensions and benefits are less sturdy, said Barbara Butrica, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute’s Income and Benefits Policy Center. “They are starting retirement at a disadvantage,” she said.

Women also tend to live longer than men. “So she’ll have to make that income last a lot longer time,” Butrica said.

Among the over-65 set, non-married women have the highest poverty rates. While only 4 percent of married women over 65 fell below the poverty line in 2010, that number rose to 14 percent for widows over 65 and 18 percent for divorced women over 65, Butrica said.

For men over 65 living in poverty, 4 percent were married; 11 percent were widowers and 12 percent were divorced. The gender differences are even more striking, Butrica said, when you consider that in 2010, only 29.5 percent of men age 65 or older were not married, compared with 56.3 percent of women. Those numbers come from the Social Security Administration's 2012 report on “Income of the Population 55 or Older, 2010.”

But should even women with very good jobs fret about being homeless one day?

“It’s highly unlikely. But it could happen,” Butrica said, citing the likelihood that a catastrophic illness is more likely to strike as you get older. “The fact that these women are thinking about it is a good thing.”

And indeed more women are planning for retirement, especially since the financial crisis of 2008-2009, according to the Allianz survey.

More than 90 percent of the women who responded to the survey said women need to be more involved in financial planning. The strongest agreement, 96 percent, came from divorced women.

Overall, 57 percent of the respondents said they both "have more earning power than ever before" and 60 percent said they are the primary breadwinner in their household

The Women, Money & Power Study was conducted by Larson Research + Strategy in December 2012 as an opt-in, online survey with 2,213 women, ages 25 through 75, with an annual household income of at least $30,000. The numbers are representative of the U.S. female population based on age and geographic distribution and are weighted to reflect the most recent and accurate available U.S. Census proportions.

Nati Harnik / AP file

Margery Gibbs uses coupons at a store in Omaha, Neb., in 2009. Coupon use fell in 2012 after several strong years.

The good, old-fashioned coupon – which surged in popularity in recent years – appears to be falling out of favor.

Two separate studies show that coupon use declined significantly in 2012.

One study, from coupon industry consulting firm Inmar, found that about 3 billion coupons were redeemed in 2012, a drop of about 14.3 percent from approximately 3.5 billion coupons redeemed in 2011. Another, from NCH Marketing Services, found that coupon use fell by 17 percent in 2012 over the year before.

The drop came after several good years for the coupon, which seemed to indicate that the weak economy had helped bring coupon clipping back in style. The coupon has even enjoyed its 15 minutes of pop culture fame thanks to the reality show “Extreme Couponing,” which documents people using thousands of coupons to save hundreds of dollars stockpiling diapers, paper towels and other items.

But experts say that while frugality is still in vogue, many shoppers have gotten so savvy at saving money that they've moved past the coupon.

“It was like the training wheels … to teach people how to save money,” Phil Lempert, the chief executive of Supermarket Guru, said of coupons.

Experts say it’s pretty common for coupon use to rise when the economy goes south, and start falling as the economy gets better.

But the economic gains in 2012 weren’t really strong enough to warrant people giving up their frugal habits. In addition, experts say they saw plenty of other reasons that coupon use has declined.

“It’s sort of a thousand cuts,” said David Mounts, the chief executive of Inmar. “It’s little things here and there.”

For starters, there were slightly fewer coupons. The industry distributed about 310 billion coupons in 2012, down from 313 billion in 2011 and a big drop from 336 billion in 2010, according to Inmar’s research.

Last year’s batch of coupons also tended to be for smaller discounts and to expire more quickly than in the past, Mounts said.

In addition, shopping habits have changed.

Some customers have started to want more than a one-size-fits-all coupon that you clip out of a Sunday newspaper, Mounts said.  Instead, more shoppers are looking for personalized deals that more closely match their shopping habits. They also want deals that are delivered digitally so they don’t have to manage a stack of paper.

So far, though, those types of coupons aren’t that widespread. Inmar’s data shows that more than four in 10 coupons still come from the newspaper inserts.

Frugally minded shoppers also are finding even more sophisticated ways to save money, said Lempert of Supermarket Guru, which tracks customer shopping habits.

These days, he’s seeing more savvy shoppers going to multiple stores to find the best prices on food and other items. Their stops may include drugstores, dollar stores, warehouse chains like Costco and specialty grocers such as Trader Joe’s.

They’re also turning more to store brands that may be cheaper than name brands, even when there’s a coupon for the branded item, he said.

Many younger customers also are constantly changing their eating and shopping habits, he said, and may not be as interested in buying the items that are traditionally discounted with coupons. They also may be more captivated by new types of ways to save, such as a four-hour sale promoted on Twitter.

“Frankly, the coupons weren’t meeting their needs,” Lempert said.

The extreme couponing fad may not have helped either.

The trend sparked a backlash among some in the industry, who alleged that the TV show set unrealistic expectations.

Lempert thinks it also made some shoppers feel uneasy. He said he receives thousands of emails a week from shoppers, and reaction to extreme couponing was largely negative.

Despite such challenges, experts say the coupon industry is adapting to changing customer preferences. Inmar’s early data from the start of 2013 appears to be showing more positive trends in coupon use than last year, Mounts said, which suggests coupon clipping likely won't disappear completely any time soon.

As teenagers demand independence and eventually move out, they’re not always quick to cut the cord when it comes paying their own cell phone bill.

Tim Roberts | Taxi | Getty Images

Many twentysomethings remain on their parents' family cellphone plan.

Often they’re perfectly OK staying on their parents’ cell phone plan and online subscriptions that allow more than one user, according to a new survey conducted by Harris Interactive for The Wall Street Journal. Harris surveyed 620 parents with adult children for its report.

Among 620 parents with 18- to 35-year-old children, more than 40 percent of those surveyed said they still pay for their kids’ cellphone service, and 29 percent were still doing so even if their children no longer lived at home.  

Usually those phone bills are paid through a family plan that lowers the cost for all users. Sprint, for example, allows up to five lines on one plan, with no requirement that users live in the same state. A $150 monthly rate pays for 1,500 minutes for two lines. Lines three through five cost $30 each.

Family plans are gaining in popularity, said Weston Henderek, the principal analyst for the wireless services sector at Current Analysis. “The incentive to be part of a bundles plan, like a family plan, is much higher than it used to be,” he said.

The economies of scale make it financially smarter for adult children to share a family plan with the parents and just split the cost, Henderek said. 

The wireless providers benefit too, because individuals are less likely to switch companies when they are part of a family plan. The pressure to stick to the family plan means less turnover for the phone companies, Henderek said.

The phone companies are reluctant to reveal how much business comes through group plans rather than individual accounts, but Henderek said AT&T recently said 80 percent of its customers (excluding pre-paid plans) use family plans or business accounts that operate like family plans. “Overall I estimate that AT&T and Verizon are in the same place,” he said.

The percentage is even higher if you count only smartphones. About 90 percent of AT&T's smartphone subscribers are on FamilyTalk, Mobile Share or business plans, an AT&T spokesman said.

All told, as of the fourth quarter for 2012, AT&T’s Mobile Share plans had 6.6 million customers across 2.2 million accounts, indicating about three devices per account, according to the spokesman.

“For the big carriers, they are all headed into this family plan structure,” Henderek said.

In 2010, a Pew Internet & American Life Project study found that most teenagers with cell phones have family plans paid by their parents.

“Seventeen seems to be a critical age in terms of cell phone responsibility; at that age, the percentage of cell phone users who are responsible for at least part of their cell phone bills jumps to 40 percent,” the Pew report states.

The percentages start to vary when race and family income is taken into account, according to Pew’s “Teens and Mobile Phones” report. Overall, 29 percent of teen cell phone users paid for at least part of their bills while the rate was 63 percent among black and Hispanic teens in households with incomes below $30,000.

The Pew study was based on interviews in 2009 with 800 teenagers ages 12 to 17 and their parents, and on nine focus groups conducted with teens between the ages of 12 and 18.

We all have things that we suspect may hold value ...but how much?

Is your grandfather's old watch worth something? How about that antique lamp?

Let  TODAY's Jean Chatzky know what is hiding in your closet or attic. Send us a short description and a photo. If we select your item, we will get it appraised.  We may even display your item in a future broadcast.

If you’re interested in being a part of this project, please e-mail us here. Please give us some details, including where you live, what item you are looking to sell and how to best reach you. Selected responses will be used in upcoming stories.

Tired of paying your bank for checking or maintaining a sizeable balance in order to have the monthly fee waived? You might want to check out what’s available from a credit union.

Seventy-two percent of America’s 50 largest credit unions offer standalone free checking – with no strings attached – according to the 2013 Credit Union Checking Survey by Bankrate.com released Monday. Only 39 percent of the nation’s banks offer such standalone free checking, the website reported last September.

"While free checking has been in sharp decline at banks in recent years, it remains the rule rather than the exception at credit unions,” noted Greg McBride, Bankrate’s senior financial analyst. 

The website’s surveys show that since 2010, the availability of standalone free checking dropped from 78 to 72 percent at credit unions and plunged from 65 to 39 percent at banks.

Bankrate found that nearly all (96 percent) of the largest credit unions offer a checking account that can become free with direct deposit, e-statements, transaction activity, other accounts or some combination of these factors.

Both banks and credit unions are grappling with ways to boost revenue and pay for additional costs created by recent regulatory changes. Because credit unions are not-for-profit cooperatives, McBride explained, there are other things they can do before they eliminate free checking.

Other significant finding
Most banks charge their own customers for using a non-network ATM. While the average fee for credit unions is $1.01 (up from $0.97 last year) the average for banks is $1.57. Bankrate found that 30 percent of credit unions either do not charge a fee to use another bank’s ATM or they provide at least one free withdrawal at an out-of-network ATM per week. 

Bankrate also found:

• Half of the 50 credit unions surveyed have checking accounts with no minimum opening deposit requirement. None requires more than $100 to open.
• Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) have no minimum balance requirement. Another 8 percent waive the monthly fee with a minimum balance of no more than $750.
• Monthly service fees on credit union checking accounts range from $1 to $10, with $2 and $5 the most common.
• Non-sufficient funds (NSF) fees at credit unions average $26.74. The banks NSF fees average $31.26.
• The most common NSF fee at credit unions is $30, compared with $35 at banks.

The bottom line
Compare the largest banks with the largest credit unions, and you’ll find that credit unions have lower fees and smaller minimum balance requirements. They’re also much more likely to offer a free checking account that does not require a minimum balance

“Banks are becoming more selective in the types of customers they want,” said Pam Banks, senior policy counsel for financial services at Consumers Union (the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports).  “They are looking for people with multiple needs: mortgage, credit card and auto loan. If you are willing to make that bank your single provider for all of these services, then they are more willing to offer you free checking.”

Consumers Union advises people who are not happy with their bank to do their homework and find another financial institution that will provide the services they want at a reasonable price.

“We have found that credit unions and community banks tend to offer better fees, better products and better services,” Banks told me.

Switching financial institutions is a hassle, but it can be done if you have a plan. To get started, find the banks (FindABetterBank.com) and credit unions (MyCreditUnion.gov) in your area. Consumer Reports has prepared a tip sheet on how to move your money safely and effectively.

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website.

Go to a workshop on how to pay for your kids’ college education, and you’ll see more gray hair in the audience than in years past.

It’s not because parents of college-bound students are older — it’s because more grandparents are there, taking notes.

By all accounts, Grandma and Grandpa are more active than ever in funding their grandkids’ educations, including sinking money into 529 college savings plans.

A 529 plan is designed to help families set aside money now to pay for future college costs. Such savings plans are named after Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code, which created these types of plans in 1996. Typically, 529 plans are operated by a state or educational institution, and most states have at least one 529 plan.

Michael Parker, executive director of the state agency that administers Oregon’s 529 plan, said attending workshops is one way grandparents show what a big deal it is to them that their grandkids get a degree.

“They’re very interested in making sure that their kids, the parents, know this is hugely important, that the grandkids be financially prepared to get a college education,” he said.

By the end of 2012, American families had a record $190.7 billion socked away in 529 college savings plans, according to a March 13 report from the College Savings Plans Network. More than 11 million of the accounts have been started since they were first offered 17 years ago.

Parents still contribute the lion’s share of funds invested in 529 accounts. But contributions from grandparents now make up about 9.5 percent of the total, according to the most recent data from the Financial Research Corp, which tracks 529 investments. It was a substantial enough increase that FRC started keeping track of which types of relatives were funding 529s for the first time last year.

Source: Financial Research Corp., a Division of Strategic Insight

The trend isn’t lost on financial services companies, and many are starting to market 529 investment opportunities directly to grandparents as a result.

In February, AARP and financial services provider TIAA-CREF launched just such a campaign. It includes a section on the AARP website that members can use to look up college savings plans in all 50 states and get help with investment options and tax questions.

“Our goal is to elevate awareness in how 529 plans can help people save for college, and encourage more people, including grandparents, to save,” said Chad Peterson, a TIAA-CREF spokesman.

Franklin Templeton Investments, which administers New Jersey’s 10-year-old 529 plan, also is marketing to grandparents directly, through seminars and information on its website.

In some cases, grandparents are stepping in to help foot the bill because their adult children haven’t saved, got hit by the recession and have yet to recover, or are too tapped out paying current bills and saving for their own retirement to stash much away for college expenses.

"In this economy, it’s much harder to save for college, so if grandparents give that nudge, or give some money, it’s helping their children do it," said Reyna Gobel, a college finance expert and author of the audiobook "How Smart Students Pay for School."

Depending on their own circumstances, grandparents might find it more beneficial either to set up 529 accounts for their grandkids or contribute to existing accounts created by parents of college-bound students. When grandparents create accounts, they maintain control over where funds are invested, and can take money out at any time without penalty, according to Parker, the Oregon 529 plan director.

Once funds are transferred to pay for tuition or books, the money is recognized as student income, which could affect how much financial aid the student receives the following year, he said.

Money that grandparents deposit into a 529 account set up by a student’s parents shows up as the parents’ assets on the student’s financial aid applications, which could adversely affect how much they receive in scholarships or grants.

Either way, tax law changes that took effect this year allow grandparents to put a maximum of $14,000 a year per grandchild into a 529 account. They can also make a one-time gift of five years’ worth of contributions per person. That means a married couple could conceivably give a lump sum of $140,000 to each grandchild once every five years.

Not all grandparents make such major contributions. At Franklin Templeton Investments, people can open 529 accounts with as little as $25. The firm encourages parents and grandparents to contribute on a regular basis. As a present for a birthday or holiday, it’s a gift that “makes more of an impact,” said Roger Michaud, senior vice president for Franklin Templeton Investments' North America advisory services division and current chair of the College Savings Foundation.

There’s some evidence that grandparents may be aiding their offspring’s offspring at their own expense. Sixty-two percent of grandparents report providing money or other financial support to grandkids within the past five years, according to a September 2012 MetLife survey of 1,008 U.S. grandparents ages 45 and older. Of that number, a third said they gave financial support even though it had a negative effect on their own financial security, according to the report.

It’s harder to determine to what extent grandparents are working longer to provide that financial assistance, said Kathleen Christensen, program director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which provides grants for research on aging and work. “We do know it’s happening, and I think it’s an important trend to recognize,” she said.

You want to please the boss? Put down the pastry. 

If there was any doubt that the Scotch-and-a-smoke days of "Mad Men" corporate culture are over, a new survey draws a picture in which large companies are rewarding employees for lowering their cholesterol and submitting to monitoring from a "primary nurse case manager."

Companies started building gyms and banning smoking on corporate campuses years ago, but their demands now go beyond getting on the treadmill or cutting out cigarettes. According to the survey by the consulting group Towers Watson, more than a third of employers penalize workers for not meeting health requirements, or plan to by next year. Some 80 percent plan to affect changes using rewards of up to $400 annually.

You might want to tell your significant other to drop the doughnut, too: Sixty percent of companies said they will extend such incentives to spouses. 

The survey of 538 midsize to large companies was conducted from November to January.

Measures aimed at reducing the per-employee cost of providing benefits coincide with slowing growth in health coverage expenses. Employers expect the average active employee to cost $12,136 this year. That's up 5.1 percent but is the lowest rise since the late 1990s.

Companies have controlled costs largely by pushing some of them onto workers. Employee health care contributions have climbed faster than those of employers in the past five years and are approaching 40 percent of the total cost, including premiums and co-pays.

But with salaries increasing slowly, there is a limit to what workers can handle, leaving benefits administrators searching for ways to reduce costs by keeping employees from needing health care in the first place. 

The survey found that corporations are also expecting more from providers: Forty-seven percent of respondents said they are or would soon tie payments to performance.

There's something to be said, of course, for your employer encouraging a healthier, happier you, whatever its motives. For younger workers at the upper end of the ladder, the next few years of rapid change will mean, at worst, paying closer attention to the options being offered.

Besides watching your waistline and potato chip consumption, you'll have to deal with tighter rules about whether your spouse's or your insurance pays for doctor visits. (You also may soon have to pay a higher premium for including your dependents at all on your plan.)

The picture is muddier for retirees and lower-wage workers, thanks to the health exchanges that were included in the Affordable Care Act of 2010 but don't go into effect until next year. 

Though the exchanges were designed to provide low-cost options and subsidies for people whose employers don't offer it or who can't otherwise afford it, companies are watching to see how they develop. A third of respondents told Towers Watson they view the exchanges as a possible solution for retired workers, and that percentage is expected to rise as the exchanges become active.

Lower-wage workers, even those on their company's plan, also may find themselves being off-loaded onto exchanges. 

"Some employers will be eliminating part-time coverage or structuring their plans to make the employer plan 'unaffordable' under the law so that low-wage workers can access the subsidies," said Randall Abbott, a senior health care consulting leader at Towers Watson. 

As health benefits become an increasingly precious commodity, they are evolving into "a proposition that attracts, retains and motivates employees," according to the Towers Watson report—and not a standard slate of goodies that automatically comes with the job. What kind of benefits you get may become the best sign of how much a company values you.

Think about that the next time you get up to make the doughnuts.